


Luck Favors The Prepared

by Actually_Felicity_Smoak



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Crisis on earth x, Crossover, Other, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 19:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12941928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Actually_Felicity_Smoak/pseuds/Actually_Felicity_Smoak





	Luck Favors The Prepared

"Why do you have a kryptonite arrow?"

Oliver turned around. Kara was standing behind him, looking hurt in the way that only she could do. _How does she manage to look so much like a kicked puppy?_ Even Felicity's disappointment didn't cut him the way Kara's did. It was probably how cheerful she looked most of the time, that made the pain so painful in contrast. 

Oliver tried for levity. "Well I'd already shot Barry, so..."

"It's not funny, Oliver!" Kara said. "Why would you do that? How could you even think to do that to me?"

He sighed. How could he explain to her the importance of being prepared? The supers never got it, not really. Their plans always boiled down to _well I've got superpowers so I'll be fine_. And it worked often enough that they didn't understand -- not deep down in their bones -- how impossible it is to run a backup plan if your superpowers aren't enough. You have to plan ahead. 

"I told you. In case an evil you ever showed up. And it turned out to be a good thing, didn't it?"

"No it is _not_ a 'good thing'," Kara cried. "Don't you trust me?"

 _Lady, I don't trust anyone. I don't trust myself,_ Oliver thought, but he said nothing. 

"How would you feel," Kara persisted, "if you found out that someone you were working with -- someone on your team -- had a plan to take you out?"

Oliver blinked. And stared at her. Then, without breaking eye contact, he pulled out his phone and hit speed dial. Ringing echoed down the hallway of Star Labs as he switched it to speakerphone. 

"Diggle." John always answered the phone efficiently, since he didn't know how much of an emergency it might be when Oliver called. 

"John, hey, quick question," Oliver said, still looking at Kara. "What's your plan to take me out, if that became necessary?"

Digg was silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was amused. "I'm hardly going to tell you that, Oliver. Then you'd have time to prepare, and I'd have to come up with a whole 'nother plan."

"You only have the single plan?" Oliver raised an eyebrow. 

"No," John said scornfully. "But no point wasting a good backup plan if I don't have to."

"You have _multiple_ plans to overthrow your team leader?" Kara burst out. 

"Supergirl," John was quiet; Oliver could almost hear him thinking, processing implications. "Kara. How are you? And yes, of course I do."

"Why?" Kara demanded.

The connection was far too staticky to hear John's shrug, but Oliver knew it was there, just like he knew John had shifted his weight to speak more directly into the audio pickup. "Oliver's dangerous, Miss Danvers. If something were to ... go wrong ... we wouldn't have time to come up with a plan at that point. It has to already have been in place."

"But don't you trust him?"

"It's not about trust," Digg said. "It's about being prepared for anything that might happen. I've seen Barry Allen transformed into a raging vengeful maniac. We're currently fighting a woman who is, tactically speaking, Oliver's former fiancee. Last year Oliver and Barry had to fight _me_." He didn't point out that they'd also been fighting her, but by the look on Kara's face the point had been made. "If there's one thing that's been conclusively proven in the last 5 years, it's that you can't predict what's going to happen. There's too much in the multiverse that's out of our control. But I will be _damned_ if I will let anyone get hurt because I neglected something that I could have prevented." He exhaled sharply; his next words were much softer. "Even if it means I have to put my brother down. Again." 

_Thank you, John._ After a beat, Oliver spoke into the silence. "We have invaders from another Earth. They attacked Iris and Barry's wedding. So far we've seen doppelgangers of me, Kara and Tommy, and they have Earth 1 Eobard Thawne working with them. Please brief the team, and-" he smiled wryly "-make sure everyone's filled in on that plan to defeat me. You may need it sooner than we'd like."


End file.
